• Learning doesn’t just happen during school hours or during the traditional school year, capitalize on every opportunity to impart important skills and knowledge to learners.
  

• Including a wider variety of adults in all aspects of learning, complementing the efforts of highly skilled teachers;
  

• Assessing students’ skills and knowledge using a combination of performance-based and traditional testing;
  

• Acknowledging that learning takes place both in and out of the classroom, and providing opportunities for students to expand their skills and knowledge in new settings; and
  

• Addressing the needs and interests of learners while focusing on ambitious learning standards.

The student-centered principles and more detailed practices spelled out below taken together represent an aspiration as well as the current, working definition of Student-Centered Learning for the Foundation. However, this definition may evolve as our exploration progresses and educators and other stakeholders contribute their views.

1. A system of schooling that provides all students equal access to the skills and knowledge needed for college and career readiness in the 21^st  century will:

1. Be responsive to the needs and interests of all learners, meeting them where they are while sharing a common set of rigorous learning standards;
2. Develop and assess the intellectual and social skills important to success in the 21^st century, including, but not limited to, problem-solving, analysis, and creativity;
3. Provide ongoing information on student opportunity, achievement, and attainment of learning outcomes and access to postsecondary education, disaggregated by subgroups including income, race, ethnicity, and language status;
4. Ensure resource allocation to provide the scope and quality of learning opportunities and supports for those students who most need them;
5. Award credits for mastering learning objectives that are transferable between school systems and into higher education; and,
6. Engage students in meaningful roles in their educational experience.
   

2. A system of schooling that focuses on mastery of skills and knowledge will: 

1. Capitalize on every opportunity to impart important skills and knowledge to learners not limited to the classroom, during school hours, or the traditional school year;
2. Move toward a system where progress is based on demonstration of mastery rather than seat time or a prescribed calendar;
3. Institute standards and assessments that include demonstration of proficiency in 21st century skills and knowledge; 
4. Utilize a combination of assessments, both formative and summative, best suited to the content, including performance-based approaches and traditional testing;
5. Develop educators who are skilled at designing, implementing and using the results of formative assessments that serve as a positive learning experience; and,
6. Provide data management systems that support learning (so that educators can easily identify where both teachers and students are competent and where they are having difficulty in “real time”) as well as provide guidance on how to adapt learning experiences for optimal learning results.

3. A system of schooling that aligns with current research on how people learn will:

1. Utilize  students’ prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests to enhance learning;
2. Employ research about adolescent social and brain development to address learning gaps and enable students entering at all levels to achieve mastery;
3. Build educators’ abilities to be strong facilitators and coaches who are skilled in a broad range of instructional practices that engage all students, including, but not limited to, project-based learning, collaborative learning and applied (inquiry-based) learning;
4. Transfer responsibility for learning to students, especially high school students, within appropriate structures for supporting the development of:
     i. the awareness and understanding of one's thinking and cognitive
        processes, thinking about thinking;
   ii.  an understanding of clear learning targets; and,
   iii. the process of receiving and employing ongoing feedback
         focused on improvement; and,
5. Empower and support parents, teachers, administrators, and community members to engage learners to tackle challenges, take intellectual risks, and work to a high level of mastery.

1. Greater equity is a vital factor to the positive development of our society. Greater equity promotes economic, civic, and cultural health from which society benefits.
   

2. There are various issues that contribute to current social and economic inequities, including but not limited to the many issues surrounding race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. While high quality educational opportunities can contribute to a broader success in life, they are not the only critical contributing factors.
   

3. Strong skills and knowledge – currently identified as those commensurate with at least two years of postsecondary education – are critical in order to be adequately prepared for life in the 21st century. Promoting these skills in developmentally appropriate ways is essential.
   

4. While ‘achievement gaps’ – the gaps between the educational outcomes of different populations – remain dangerously wide, the current gap between what skills all students need to possess and what skills they are learning is dangerously wide as well. This is especially true for those learners who have been traditionally underserved (including students from lower socio-economic status, low-income students of color, and rural students).
   

5. While much has been learned and some substantial gains have been made thanks to the good work of educators, policymakers, philanthropies, and the for-profit sector over the years, many of the efforts to improve schooling and related educational outcomes have been insufficient in providing enough students with the skills and knowledge they need.
   

6. The Foundation believes that extraordinary outcomes for the majority of New England’s learners – especially those currently underserved – are necessary in order to have a flourishing society, and that these ambitious outcomes are entirely possible.